Kennedy Center Honors Ratings Tank Like Never Before Thanks to Trump

The reviews of Donald Trump’s takeover of Kennedy Center Honors are in, and it’s official: The president shouldn’t quit his day job just yet. 

Trump had asked his fans Tuesday to let him know what they made of his stint as “Master of Ceremonies” for the yearly award show. “If really good, would you like me to leave the presidency in order to make ‘hosting’ a full time job?” Trump wrote. 

Unfortunately, the viewers’ response was resounding. 

Preliminary data from Nielsen Media Research showed the annual honors  ceremony garnered an absolutely abysmal audience. It was the “smallest audience ever on the night of December 23, 2025, averaging an estimated 2.65 million viewers,” Programming Insider posted on X. “To put that in perspective: the 2024 broadcast averaged 4.1 million.”

Maybe viewers struggled to find the event because Trump decided to change what it was called, dubbing it the “TRUMP KENNEDY CENTER HONORS” in a post on Truth Social, shortly after he slapped his name on the outside of the building. But according to an internal memo obtained by The Washington Post, CBS News staffers were instructed to call it just the Kennedy Center Honors, because an official name change requires congressional approval. The network also cut down Trump’s 12-minute opening remarks down to just two minutes in its coverage.

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers in Yakima, Washington, spent Christmas Eve arresting a man in a Walmart parking lot—even taking his already purchased groceries for themselves.

Four ICE officers in masks and tactical gear can be seen in a video surrounding a man with a car full of food while he loads it into his car. A woman watching the arrest asked ICE if she could take down the phone number of the man’s wife to let her know her husband had been detained. The ICE agents refused.

“No, guess he should’ve complied,” an agent said.

The agents then start to divvy up the man’s groceries, as the bystander tells them they had previously detained and deported her husband. “I fucking hate these motherfuckers,” the woman filming says as they drive off—presumably to the nearby Yakima ICE Detention Center.

Masked men abducting people and looting their groceries is unfortunately par for the course as the first year of President Trump’s mass deportation campaign draws to a close.

“Fire their asses and arrest them for theft. If there were even a scintilla of decency at DHS, that is what would happen, but there isn’t,” political scientist Norman Ornstein wrote. “Of course, when you have a leader who took $50,000 in a bribe in a cava bag, this is not surprising.”

What’s Grandpa Trump’s version of telling stories by the fire on Christmas? It seems to be unleashing a flurry of more than 100 posts on Truth Social lying, complaining, and congratulating himself.

In the early hours of Thursday, Trump published a torrent of posts targeting former presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Ilhan Omar, Senator Mark Kelly, Somalis in Minnesota, Michigan’s secretary of state, Democrats in California, and “RINOs,” just to name a few.

Following the flood, Trump penned a special message to “the many Sleazebags who loved Jeffrey Epstein,” and congratulated himself for “dropping” the convicted sex offender “long before it was fashionable to do so.”

“Enjoy what may be your last merry Christmas!” Trump added.

While speaking to a child later Thursday who’d made the mistake of calling NORAD’s Santa Tracker, Trump descended into a paranoid spiral.

“Well we track Santa. We want to make sure that Santa is being good. Santa’s a very good person. We want to make sure that he’s not infiltrated, that we’re not infiltrating into our country a bad Santa,” Trump said, inventing a new problem for American children to mull.

“So, we found out that Santa is good. Santa loves you. Santa loves Oklahoma like I do. You know, Oklahoma was very good to me in the election. So, I love Oklahoma. Don’t ever leave Oklahoma, okay?

On Christmas Eve, Trump also bid a Merry Christmas to all, “including the Radical Left Scum,” and took a moment to pat himself on the back for things he has not accomplished, like “No Inflation” and “Trillions of Dollars” from his reciprocal tariffs.

The Nigerian government took the time to debunk President Trump’s claims of Christian genocide in Nigeria after he announced the bombing of Africa’s most populous (and most oil-rich) nation.

“The United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!” Trump announced on Truth Social Christmas night. “I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was.”

The issue with right-wing claims of Christian genocide in Nigeria is that terror groups and militias are killing everyone, Christians and Muslims alike. The Nigerian government, which says it provided intelligence to the Trump administration before the strikes, clarified what they were really about.

“Nigeria reiterates that all counter-terrorism efforts are guided by the primacy of protecting civilian lives, safeguarding national unity, and upholding the rights and dignity of all citizens, irrespective of faith or ethnicity,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote in a statement. “Terrorist violence in any form whether directed at Christians, Muslims, or other communities remains an affront to Nigeria’s values and to international peace and security.”

Nigeria has spent months attempting to clarify this point, as the right has spent months attempting to justify violent U.S. intervention to protect Christians—with Trump threatening to enter Nigeria “gun-a- blazing” just last month.

“This is not a Christian genocide, because the facts don’t support it,” Good Governance Nigeria researcher Malik Samuel said in November. “If you look at the areas where this conflict is rife, even in the—even if you take Borno state alone, you look at northern Borno, many of these communities are Muslim-dominated. So most of the victims of Boko Haram violence are Muslims.”

Trump is running with this much like he ran with the absurd claims of white genocide in South Africa—and both Christian and Muslims in Nigeria will suffer the consequences.

It’s official: December was the deadliest month for immigrants in ICE custody since President Donald Trump returned to the White House.

This year was already the deadliest for those in ICE custody since 2004. In December, that trend continued, with seven immigrants dying in ICE detention, including four that died within a four day span, according to death notices published by ICE. Three of the deceased were held at facilities in Texas before they died. Four of the deceased died within four days of each other.

Francisco Gaspar-Andres, a 48-year-old man from Guatemala died on December 3, after being held at Camp East Montana in Texas since September. In his notice, ICE noted that although his “cause of death is pending, medical staff attributed it to natural liver and kidney failure.” The new detention facility at Fort Bliss has reportedly already violated dozens of federal standards for immigrant detention since welcoming detainees in August.

Pete Sumalo Montejo, a 72-year-old Filipino man who was previously convicted of child sexual abuse, died on December 5 at the Montgomery Processing Center in Texas. ICE reported that Montejo had suffered a number of illnesses throughout his time in custody: In June he was admitted for shortness of breath and hypoxia, and between July and November he was hospitalized several times for illnesses such as anemia and septic shock resulting from pneumonia.

Shiraz Fatehali Sachwani, a 48 year-old man from Pakistan, died on December 6, after being held at Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, since June. He was admitted to the hospital in November after experiencing low oxygen levels and tachycardia.

Jean Wilson Brutus, a 41-year-old Haitian man detained at Delaney Hall Detention Facility in Newark, New Jersey, died on December 12 from “suspected natural causes.” Immigrants held at Delaney Hall previously said that they were starved.

Fouad Saeed Abdulkadir, a 46-year-old Eritrean man, died in ICE custody December 14 at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania. Abdulkadir’s sudden death is reportedly the second to occur at that facility this year, and is currently being investigated by Pennsylvania State Police and the Clearfield County coroner.

Delvin Francisco Rodriguez, a 39-year-old man from Nicaragua was pronounced dead on December 14, just one day after he was scheduled to be deported. He was discovered unresponsive and without a pulse at the Adams County Detention Center in Colorado on December 4, removed to a medical facility, and declared dead 10 days later.

Nenko Stanev Gantchev, a 56-year-old man from Bulgaria, died in ICE custody December 15 at the North Lake Processing Center in Michigan. While ICE wrote that they suspected he died of natural causes, his cause of death is under investigation.

ICE’s webpage dedicated to Detainee Death Reporting lists only 15 deaths in 2025—not including any from this month. However, at least 20 immigrants had already died in ICE custody as of October, according to NPR.

ICE is required to publish information about an in-custody death within 30 days.

President Trump plans on ringing in the New Year by garnishing the wages of over 5 million student debtors currently in default on their loans, The Washington Post first reported.

Starting January 7, the Department of Education plans to withhold a portion of the wages of around 1,000 defaulted borrowers. The number will gradually increase within the following months.

By law, the Education Department must inform those in default at least 30 days before garnishing their wages. The department can take up to 15 percent of a student loan holder’s after-tax income to pay off their debts from college—yet another example of President Trump working against the issue of affordability he centered so much of his campaign around. Over 42 million people have student loans, and the number of people defaulting on them is expected to double very soon, highlighting the absurd price of college education in America, even as its value seems to be declining.

No, JD Vance will not be our first “Chad” president.

The vice president shared a series of photographs to X Monday showing himself valiantly running physical training drills with Navy Seals at Base Coronado, in California. Vance was photographed running down the beach, carrying a heavy log, climbing a large cargo net, and even rowing. Another set of photographs showed him speaking with officers, and posing for a photograph in front of a large American flag.

“They took it easy on me and I still feel like I got hit by a freight train,” Vance wrote on X, recapping his 90-minute PT session. “So grateful to all of our warriors who keep us safe and keep the highest standards anywhere in the world!” Vance previously served a four-year stint in the public affairs section in the 2nd Marine Aircraft.

Obviously, Vance’s critics were not impressed.

“Cool, man—but when you’re done cosplaying, can you and your boss do something about housing and grocery prices? Thanks,” Mike Nellis, a Democratic strategist, wrote on X.

“It’s the middle of the workday. While Americans are grinding to make Christmas work, the vice president is burning taxpayer dollars pretending to be a Navy SEAL,” Christopher Hale, a former Democratic congressional candidate, wrote on X.

Even Vance couldn’t help but make fun of himself. He shared an edited version of the photograph that included his bloated, meme-ified face.

“Fixed it,” he wrote on X.

It’s not entirely clear what prompted Vance’s recent cosplaying adventure. Perhaps it has something to do with his recent presidential endorsement from Erika Kirk, a closely-held friend of the vice president. Or maybe it has something to do with his slipping poll numbers.

A recent survey by AtlasIntel found that while Vance was still the leading pick to become the Republican nominee in 2028, a majority of Republicans no longer support him. Only 46.7 percent of respondents said they would pick Vance over other figures, down from 54.6 percent in a September poll.

Meanwhile, a straw poll taken by Fox News at Turning Point USA’s Amerifest this past weekend found that 84.2 percent of respondents said they would like to see Vance as the Republican nominee in 2028, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis trailing far behind him. In order to claim the full support of MAGA, it seems Vance may have decided it’s time to prove himself more than a sniveling debate kid.

The Justice Department is now downplaying the Epstein files they took so long to release by claiming that they’re full of “untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump.” 

“The Department of Justice has officially released nearly 30,000 more pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein,” the DOJ wrote Tuesday on X. “Some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear: the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already.”

“Nevertheless, out of our commitment to the law and transparency, the DOJ is releasing these documents with the legally required protections for Epstein’s victims.”

While there certainly is some uncorroborated information in the files, there is also a wealth of new, possibly incriminating evidence about President Trump. One file contains an email from an assistant U.S. attorney from January 2020 that reads, “For your situational awareness, wanted to let you know that the flight records we received yesterday reflect that Donald Trump traveled on Epstein’s private jet many more times than has previously been reported.”  

Another file contained a 2019 letter from Epstein addressed to “L.N.” or Larry Nassar, the former U.S. gymnastics team doctor convicted of sexually abusing scores of women and girls.

“As you know by now, I have taken the ‘short route’ home,” Epstein wrote, appearing to reference his later death by suicide. “Good luck! We shared one thing… our love and caring for young ladies and the hope they’d reach their full potential. Our president also shares our love of young, nubile girls. When a young beauty walked by he loved to ‘grab snatch,’ whereas we ended up snatching grub in the mess halls of the system. Life is unfair,” he said, signing off “J. Epstein.” 

Even as more information rolls in, it should come as no surprise that the Justice Department—which has been completely subservient to the president—continues to provide cover for him even as they release the heavily redacted files. 

“‘We’re releasing the documents, but please know in advance they’re fake, irrelevant, already debunked, totally harmless, and also important enough to issue a press statement about,’” one conservative X user posted. “If the DOJ tells you what to think before you read the documents, you already know they’re lying.” 

A bunch of masked male Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in tactical gear broke into the women’s bathroom of Cato nutrition bar factory in New York, even forcing a stall open while a woman in there used the toilet. They can be heard telling her to pull her pants up.

The raid occurred in September, but the troubling footage was just recently revealed in court filings.

The officers justified their invasive actions by telling Cato’s owners that they had a warrant for a violent felon. In reality, the warrant they did have only allowed them to go into the building and seize documents, not kidnap a woman while she was on the toilet.

ICE eventually detained and questioned 57 people, even those who asked for a lawyer. At least 21 were deported and separated from their families.

“I guess we found the men going into women’s bathrooms,” one X user mused.

The government found a photograph of Donald Trump and Ghislaine Maxwell on Steve Bannon’s phone. So, why did they redact it?

Buried in the latest trove of documents released by the Department of Justice Monday, one email appeared to be from a federal investigator who said they’d discovered something while digging through Bannon’s iPhone 7.

“As I was going through the images from that phone, I found an image of Trump and Ghislaine Maxwell on Bannon’s phone,” the email stated, passing it forward “in case it was of any importance” to someone handling “both cases.”

“Thanks very much for flagging—no need to do anything on this one,” the person responds.

Despite the fact that the Epstein Files Transparency Act only required the Trump administration to redact identifiable information of survivors—something that the government failed to do—the photograph of Trump and Maxwell was redacted in its entirety in the DOJ’s release. The sender and recipients’ names have also all been redacted.

So, what is it about this photograph in particular that warranted redaction?

Over the course of his long friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, Trump was photographed several times with Maxwell. The two attended parties and fashion events, and even traveled together.

It seems that Trump may be receiving some special treatment. In other photographs released as part of the government’s document dumps, former President Bill Clinton’s face remained visible while the faces of some other individuals were redacted. The DOJ even went so far as to release a statement to get ahead of the “untrue and sensationalist claims” about Trump contained in their own release.

The batch of files released Monday contained multiple disturbing revelations, including one email that suggested Trump flew on Epstein’s jet “many more times than previously has been reported,” and Epstein’s apparent suicide note that mentioned Trump’s love of “young, nubile girls.”